I am thinking of buying a 99 Saturn wagon with 155000 miles.- Can anyone tell me what to look out for ?
What does Consumer Reports say about a 99 SW1, you should look this up before buying.
What’s the asking price?
Any vehicle with this many miles is a gamble.
Unless you know the service history of the vehicle you’re rolling the dice. You may get lucky and you may not.
If, on the other hand, the car comes with a folder stuffed with maintenance records, you may have found a good vehicle.
It’s too hard to tell from here.
I can’t access Consumer Report. Asking price is 1500, car has been garaged since last winter, owner out of state for work. Owner is son of friend.
Your local library should have Consumer Reports.
For $1,500 you can’t be too picky. If it starts, idles, drives good, doesn’t have a Check Engine light on, has decent tires, comes to a stop when you brake, you can’t ask for much more.
If it has a timing belt, find out when it was changed, look at the receipt.
Look out for bad head gaskets on Saturns.
The only issue with Saturn’s that I’m familiar with is the intake manifold gasket around the #1 cylinder. If it has this, the idle will be above normal with a slight roughness. If the idle is smooth and around 750 rpm, it should be ok.
I would suggest just taking the car by a local shop for a once over. Most have a basic check they will do on a car, typically charging about an hour’s labor. They also might be able to tell you whether the car even needs new window motors or not (http://community.cartalk.com/posts/list/2148284.page) and how much that might cost.